Saturday, 28 January 2012

New Avengers #18 is the first New Avengers issue I've bought. Luckily I would in fact recommend it as a jumping on point as it marks the beginning(ish) of a major new story.
The H.A.M.M.E.R. War.

Any Marvel fan should be able to tell you who H.A.M.M.E.R is. When Osborn was on top of the world in charge of The Avengers, he was also in charge of H.A.M.M.E.R - It was basically Osborn's version of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Those days are over. People realised Osborn was still mental during the Siege event around a year ago, he ended up losing out and getting arrested and that was the end of that. But not for long! Because Osborn broke out (kind of) in the pages of Kelly Sue DeConnick's Osborn miniseries and has been planning evil ever since.

This issue doesn't even bother featuring the actual New Avengers, and instead is an issue entirely focused on Osborn forming his team, and his alliances.

Thankfully, this isn't a bad thing. Osborn is still a terrific character after all this time and seeing him forming this new plan is exciting to say the least.

The art in this book is also something to behold. Definitely some of the best Marvel art currently out there meaning #18 is a joy to read and to look at.

It's not perfect. The story is a little awkwardly told - with events happening in a seemingly random order. Fortunately, this doesn't affect the story too much but still seems like an odd choice.
Plus, if your an action fan you may get bored of this issue. Personally, I didn't - but if you have little knowledge about the Marvel Universe you may find watching this middle-aged man assemble a team of odd looking people a bit dull.

In the end though, New Avengers #18 is the first proper step into a story which I am very excited about. It does a good job, with great art and good writing - if the story stays like this for the duration then it's going to be something very special indeed.